Friday, August 25, 2006

Ah, rankings

We had a little mention on Good Morning America that just makes you yell, "Yes!" Here is a link to the clip, which requires QuickTime Player to view.

Even though the spot is only a few seconds long, Diane Sawyer still manages to buy into the pervasive myth that the toughest schools to get into are also the best, and that all any college student should want is to be surrounded by other people who have very high SAT scores. She also echoes what a lot of people have in the back of their minds when they think about Chicago: "I guess it's good to get off of the East Coast..."

Interesting tidbit though: Diane Sawyer is married to film director Mike Nichols, an alum of the University of Chicago. While he was on campus in the 1950s, he was involved in the Compass Players, the world's first improvisational comedy group. He eventually went on to more legitimate theater projects, won seven Tonys, and then went into film, directing Closer, The Birdcage, Postcards from the Edge, Working Girl, The Graduate, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?